Interim
by NinthFeather
Summary: Four 500-word drabbles, one per Gundam Meister, set during the time-skip between Season 1 and Season 2. Each drabble is from the POV of an OC meeting one of the Meisters. Spoilers up to early Season 2.
1. Setsuna

_A/N: I'm trying a new format (new to me, at least, as it seems to be rather popular with other fanfic authors) for the author's notes of this fic, so please bear with me! _

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Title: Interim  
>Author: NinthFeather<br>Rating: T  
>Summary: Four 500-word drabbles, one per Gundam Meister, and one per year of the time-skip between Season 1 and Season 2. Each drabble focuses on one season-one Gundam Meister from the point of an OC during the time-skip. (Yes, I'm including Neil in that, just be patient, I know how I'm gonna do it.) Drabble one: "The new guy is way too quiet, Mark decides."<br>WARNINGS: Mentions of someone getting sick to their stomach; if that grosses you out, you've been warned. Nothing else, though. Spoilers for the end of Season 1.  
>Disclaimer: Unless having a plushie replica of Exia counts, I do not own.<br>AN – I picture Mark as a big, stocky guy who looks imposing, at least and maybe even a little scary but is actually very nice in a clumsy sort of way.

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The new guy is way too quiet, Mark decides.

He's short and dark and intense, his mouth always curved downward into an expression that's not quite a full frown, but definitely isn't a smile either.

He doesn't talk to anyone unless he has a question about his job duties. Even then, his sentences are terse and clipped. When he gets really impatient with an explanation, an imperious note shows up in his voice, and it sounds so foreign in his otherwise inflectionless tone that Mark is sure he learned it from someone else.

He's smiled, once, when one of the guys brought his daughter to work, and she tried to give him a dandelion she'd picked from the lawn. It looked almost as if it hurt his face to do it, and his expression ended up scaring the poor child, but the way his mouth curved was definitely an attempt at a smile.

Mark tries to get him to lighten up. He offers to take him on a hunting trip, once, but the new guy looks at the rifle Mark is offering him with disgust and excuses himself to the restroom. The garage's walls are thin, so everyone hears it when he throws up.

After that, Mark starts noticing the way he flinches whenever someone comes up behind him, the way he likes to stand with his back to the wall, and how he never really seems to relax. He sees a special report about child soldiers on the news and he wonders.

But it's the new guy's business and no one else's, after all, Mark decides, and so he doesn't pry. The others start to catch on, too. After a few weeks, people stop offering him rides to church because he clearly doesn't want them and boy, is he good at glaring. The attempts at friendliness decline until suddenly, the boy is well and truly left alone.

And then, one day, Mark finds him asleep at his worktable, with tears leaking out of his eyes, and hears him mumble something that sounds like "Lockon." And even though Mark has no idea what a "Lockon" is, he figures it must have been something important to this guy, once.

Mark shakes his shoulder, just slightly, and then jumps backwards before he can put him in an arm-lock—that's what he did to last guy who woke him up. The new guy blinks a couple times, and rubs his eyes, and, for a few seconds, looks almost human, but then his expression goes blank again and he glares at Mark for a few seconds before returning to work.

He quits after a few weeks, and says he's moving somewhere else. Before he leaves, Mark shakes his hand, and asks him his name, because he's never actually heard him or anyone else use it.

"Setsuna F. Seiei," the new guy— though Mark supposes he can't call him that now, since he's quitting— says, and there's just a hint of pride in his voice.


	2. Allelujah

Title: Interim  
>Author: NinthFeather<br>Rating: T  
>Summary: Four 500-word drabbles, one per Gundam Meister, and one per year of the time-skip between Season 1 and Season 2. Each drabble focuses on one season-one Gundam Meister from the point of an OC during the time-skip. (Yes, I'm including Neil in that, just be patient, I know how I'm gonna do it.) Drabble two: "...when Cameron looks at the Gundam Meister, all he sees is a broken man, barely out of adolescence and skinny as a rail, with a rather girly haircut."<br>WARNINGS: Mentions of interrogation, Gundam Meisters getting beaten up, mention of terrorism—wait, that last one's in canon too, so if that bothers you, why are you here?  
>Disclaimer: Still not mine.<p>

AN – In my mind, Cameron looks kinda like Ron Howard back when he was playing Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. So, in anime terms…Leo Scorpes from Scrapped Princess but a little thinner and taller, with hair more like Ichigo Kurosaki's from Bleach.

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When Cameron first gets assigned to guard the solitary confinement cell block, the warden warns him about the individual prisoners. Most of them are political dissidents, one or two are serial murders. Only one is both—the Gundam pilot.

He's tied to a chair and in a straitjacket, and there's a restraint over his mouth. It seems like overkill to Cameron. After all, he was only able to kill all of those people because he had an advanced mobile suit. Now, he's weaponless, and, as far as Cameron's concerned, probably harmless as well.

One day, on his rounds, he deliberately pushes the events of the last few years out of his mind, and makes himself forget all of the explosions and the screaming news anchors and the half-panicked world leaders. And so, when Cameron looks at the Gundam Meister, all he sees is a broken man, barely out of adolescence and skinny as a rail, with a rather girly haircut.

He noticed Cameron's scrutiny, the rookie guard is sure of it, because next time he patrols that area, the Gundam Meister actually looks at him. His eyes are mismatched and dead and Cameron wonders what made them that way. Is that what happens when you kill so many people? Or were his eyes like that, even before?

It's a disturbing train of thought and so he stops thinking about it, but the question haunts him, so he decides to listen to the rumor mill a bit more carefully.

They interrogate the Gundam Meister more often than most of the other prisoners. He stays silent, no matter what they do. All the information he gives them is his name, the fact that he's a Gundam Meister, and the name of his organization, Celestial Being.

His name is Allelujah Haptism. It's a bitter piece of irony, Cameron thinks, that a mass murder is named for a word of praise. He wonders who named him that, and why. Cameron finds himself wondering what sort of family, what sort of life, makes someone willing to kill in the name of peace.

When Cameron passes by his cell, he tries to avoid eye contact, but, as dead as Allelujah's eyes are, there's some vestige of warmth in them, something almost inviting. Cameron tells himself it's some sort of terrorist trick.

The interrogations are getting more intense every week, and every week, Cameron notices more and more bruises. One day, he passes by the cell and sees half of the Gundam Meister's— of Allelujah's— face dyed red by blood from a cut on his forehead. Enough blood has caked around his eye to seal it shut.

What Celestial Being did was wrong. But this is wrong too. So Cameron goes to the bathroom, wets a paper towel, and wipes off his face. He winces when Cameron accidentally puts pressure on a bruise, but there's a grateful smile in Allelujah's eyes when he's done.

Cameron is fired that same day, but he doesn't think he regrets it.


	3. Tieria

Title: Interim  
>Author: NinthFeather<br>Rating: T  
>Summary: Four 500-word drabbles, one per Gundam Meister, and one per year of the time-skip between Season 1 and Season 2. Each drabble focuses on one season-one Gundam Meister from the point of an OC during the time-skip. (Yes, I'm including Neil in that, just be patient, I know how I'm gonna do it.) Drabble three: "He smiles back, awkwardly imitating her expression, and she tries not to laugh."<br>WARNINGS: Mentions of death, 'cause this is Gundam.  
>Disclaimer: Unless having a plushie replica of Exia counts, I do not own.<br>AN –I wondered where they got the new uniforms for the second season, since they look pretty complex for someone who isn't a tailor or something to sew, so I incorporated that idea into writing this. I also incorporated some of my thoughts about why there was already a green uniform for Lyle when he showed up. I picture Laurie as middle-aged and maybe a little plump. She thinks of herself as young, but she's very old-fashioned in a lot of ways.

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When Laurie's boss announces that her store is taking a commission from Celestial Being, she's understandably upset. It's not that she thinks they're the monsters the news shows make them out to be. She doesn't believe what those people say in the first place. But the A-Laws have ways of finding these sorts of things out, and they won't have any mercy on her if they catch her aiding terrorists.

Even if the only aid she's providing is new uniforms.

The representative they send is a bit standoffish, and awfully young-looking to be caught up in terrorist activities. His hair is purple, and cut in a severe bob, and he wears glasses over eyes that are usually red, except at the times when they gleam yellow-gold.

If he didn't wear a baggy pink sweater that could have easily been her grandmother's around all the time, Laurie would be scared stiff of him.

He provides Laurie with sets of measurements and color preferences, listing them off from memory. One particularly tall set of measurements, color preference green, is accompanied by a sad smile. A skinny set, color preference orange, gets a worried frown, while a shorter set, color preference blue, gets an even deeper frown that speaks of both worry and a bit of anger. A definitely female set, to be done in magenta-pink gets the same expression, but with a bit more anger.

As he continues to list colors and sizes, Laurie starts to realize how varied the members of Celestial Being must be. At least half of the measurements are clearly those of teenagers on the verge of being young adults, while others obviously belong to older men and women.

Laurie wonders why these people joined Celestial Being, and what keeps them together. More than that, she wonders what the skinny, pale boy in front of her is doing in such an organization. Does he run the computers for them? Is he a spy, maybe?

Because she values her life, she doesn't ask all her questions, but she can't quite stop herself from asking one of them.

"Why are you in Celestial Being?" she asks.

The boy smiles a little softly. "I joined Celestial Being because it was expected of me," he said, and there's a slight trace of bitterness in his tone. "But I remained there…because of what I learned from a certain person." The sad smile returns, the same one reserved for the green uniform, and Laurie suddenly remembers the green mobile suit that was destroyed during Celestial Being's defeat a year ago.

She has the sudden urge to hug him, but she knows he wouldn't appreciate that. She settles for a smile. He smiles back, awkwardly imitating her expression, and she tries not to laugh.

A few weeks later, when she gives the boy the uniforms, she makes sure the green one is on the top of the pile, even though she's fairly sure that the person it's meant for won't be able to wear it.


	4. Neil

Title: Interim  
>Author: NinthFeather<br>Rating: T  
>Summary: Four 500-word drabbles, one per Gundam Meister, and one per year of the time-skip between Season 1 and Season 2. Each drabble focuses on one season-one Gundam Meister from the point of an OC during the time-skip. (Yes, I'm including Neil in that, just be patient, you're about to read his drabble.) Drabble four: "He knew Neil, and he knows that there's only one military organization that's ever existed with goals Neil would have agreed with."<br>WARNINGS: Mentions of death, of course, since this is Gundam. Mentions of terrorism, of course, since this is Gundam 00.  
>Disclaimer: Unless having a plushie replica of Exia counts, I do not own.<br>AN –This oneshot rests on the premise that the cemetery with the Celtic crosses that shows up in various openings featuring both of the Dylandys is the same place where their parents and Amy are buried, the same place where Setsuna and Lyle first meet and also the same place where Neil is buried. Brian, in my mind, is a weathered-looking, bony old man with thinning white hair who wears a brown trenchcoat and a wool scarf whenever he's outside.

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Being the caretaker of a cemetery is a lonely job, but it suits Brian Cavanaugh. He's never been very fond of live people, anyway. The neighborhood kids call him creepy. He thinks they're probably right.

He remembers when Neil Dylandy was one of those kids. He also remembers when he wasn't a kid at all anymore, after that terrorist bombing killed his family. Neil spent a lot of time in the cemetery after that, more so than his twin brother. Lyle had worked through his grief, and moved on. Neil had smiled to the world while sadness and anger ripped him apart inside.

Brian had gotten to know the kid, after seeing him so often. He'd watched Neil struggle and grow, and he'd started to like him. Brian had missed the boy after he'd left, and he'd looked forward to his return. But he had never imagined that it would be like this.

Brian buries the empty coffin himself. The tearful woman who introduces herself as Sumeragi explains that Neil had been killed in a mobile suit battle, and that his body had been destroyed.

Privately, Brian wonders about that. He knew Neil, and he knows that there's only one military organization in existance with goals Neil would have agreed with. So, if Neil really was killed in a mobile suit, it wasn't just any mobile suit, it was a Gundam.

Which made his mourners members of Celestial Being. They don't look like terrorists to Brian. Sumeragi is crying, with a pretty, pink-haired teenager clinging to her and sobbing silently. A middle-aged, scruffy man stands behind them, with his hand on Sumeragi's shoulder. Beside them, a purple-haired boy stands stock-still, fist clenched at his sides as tears drip down his cheeks. There's a young man with short hair and a scarred face standing off to the side, eyes downcast.

Lyle's not at the funeral, and Brian wonders if these people even knew to tell him about it.

After about an hour, they leave. The purple-haired boy is the last to go, and before he leaves, he kneels beside the grave, his hand brushing over the surface of the gravestone as he says, "Thank you," in the quietest of voices.

Sumeragi wraps a pink sweater around his shaking shoulders and guides him away from the cemetery, while still wiping at her own face.

No one visits the grave for nearly a year, until one day a black-haired teenager walks into the cemetery and leaves a bouquet of flowers behind when he goes.

Lyle shows up four years after the funeral, with the black-haired teen, now a man. They're outside of the cemetery, out of hearing range from Brian's office, but he can guess at the content of their conversation and he's pretty sure it isn't going to please the A-Laws.

He doesn't know where Neil is now—Brian only takes care of the earthly resting place, the rest depends on the person and their beliefs— but he hopes that he's watching.


End file.
